The Rage of Innocence by Kristin Henning

she said that she intended this book to be a call for action. not only brings timely and much needed attention to the issue of policing and criminalization of black youth but it also provides a persuasive and powerful call for change. sheds light on many lesser known but equally troubling examples of how discriminatory and aggressive policing has criminalized the most ordinary adolescent activities contributing to the socialization of a generation of black teenagers to fear resent and resist the police christian's book. tell their stories in the wake of recent worldwide outrage at high profile examples of racial injustice and inequality the rage of innocence. She limns the effects of police presence in schools and the depth of police-induced trauma in Black adolescents.Įspecially in the wake of the recent unprecedented, worldwide outrage at racial injustice and inequality, The Rage of Innocence is an essential book for our moment.So often armed harmed by our justice system is pretty simple. She examines the criminalization of Black adolescent play and sexuality, and of Black fashion, hair, and music.

She makes clear that unlike White youth, who are afforded the freedom to test boundaries, experiment with sex and drugs, and figure out who they are and who they want to be, Black youth are seen as a threat to White America and are denied healthy adolescent development. Henning explains how discriminatory and aggressive policing has socialized a generation of Black teenagers to fear, resent, and resist the police, and she details the long-term consequences of racism that they experience at the hands of the police and their vigilante surrogates. 'Storytelling that can make people understand the racial inequities of the legal system, and.restore the humanity this system has cruelly stripped from its victims.” - New York Times Book Reviewĭrawing upon twenty-five years of experience representing Black youth in Washington, D.C.’s juvenile courts, Kristin Henning confronts America’s irrational, manufactured fears of these young people and makes a powerfully compelling case that the crisis in racist American policing begins with its relationship to Black children. A brilliant analysis of the foundations of racist policing in America: the day-to-day brutalities, largely hidden from public view, endured by Black youth growing up under constant police surveillance and the persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse

The Rage of Innocence by Kristin Henning